When the Weather Darkens
by Claraesque
Summary: Yami Yuugi, the sky, and the storm. - Pairingless, introspective fic, takes place after Duelist Kingdom. - Enjoy.


Title: When the Weather Darkens  
  
by Mayflower  
  
Rating: A light PG.  
  
Warnings: Slight angst.  
  
Pairings: None.  
  
Notes: This used to be the first chapter of a story called 'Guilty as Charged', which I wrote a very long time ago and was never quite content with. The plot has been clopped up and fed to the dogs - mostly because it stunk like old garbage - and it has been re-vamped into this much nicer little one-shot, which I actually somewhat like. The timeline is intended to be between Duelist Kingdom and the DDD match with Otogi.   
  
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The sky was beginning to darken, thick thunder clouds gathering in rolling waves over the sky. Yami Yuugi stood outside, underneath the blanket of night and rain, though the only moisture was a tiny mist, waiting for sheets of water to cover him completely. He smiled wryly, thinking to himself that it wasn't often someone such as himself saw a thunderstorm. From what he could tell, his locale was more deserts and sand than forests and muddy roads. And now, this... it was oddly pleasant. Oddly comforting. Yet, in some ways, it was frightening. Just to think that the sky above held that much retained power, that at any moment it could all come falling down on top of a person. Of course, Yami Yuugi had surely seen this power before.  
  
In Egypt, mighty winds carve out the very rocks, making mighty dunes of shifting sand. Howling winds bit and nipped, blowing and bellowing over the landscape without question or thought. The desert itself, with its mass of tawny sand was an object of respect and worship for the Ancient Egyptians. And, like sand, Yami Yuugi's memories of this time had blown away...  
  
He was no stranger to storms, storms that were not simply limited to those that start beneath the ground or high in the air. Trials that buffered the way the wind blew, voices and suppositions louder than thunder claps, none were a mystery to the former Pharaoh. But this didn't stop him from being fascinated by the magic of this thing called rain. It didn't keep him from standing outside during a storm, watching lightning flash over the sky nor did it keep him from closing his eyes and listening intently for the rumble of thunder. In some part of him, however, things were different. And he knew that, had Yuugi been given a choice, he would have stayed inside with his grandfather. He feared this angry thing called nature. Yami Yuugi didn't mind, because Yuugi would allow him to walk around in the puddles and muddy his shoes, all while hiding safe and dry in his soul room.  
  
And he understood. It was natural for someone who had never been given power, someone small and weak, to fear this. He found himself akin to this storm, unlike Yuugi, and he found it familiar and invigorating. He took a deep breath, taking in the uniquely clean smell of rain that has yet to fall. He couldn't verbally describe the scent of 'wet', but he knew what it smelled like. It was new, untainted and pure. The wind was cool, the sky dark. This was a mirror of himself. It was control and darkness and power and fear. He remembered a time when he was wrathful and vicious, tearing at things blindly, just as storms tend to. But now, standing in the calm between violence and being unaware, he related best to the weather. He wasn't completely evil. He smiled, the long and tired smile of someone very old and weary.   
  
He didn't feel as though he were helping anyone. He tried, with all the soul in him. But to no avail. Every time he thought of Yuugi being in danger, he saw himself falling short. He had hurt Yuugi and abandoned Yuugi and left Yuugi completely in the dark about some things. He turned to one side, effectively bruising Yuugi's knuckles against the brick wall of the Kame Game Shop. He cared for Yuugi. He was supposed to be there. And unlike the consistency of the storm, the faithful pitter-patter of rain on concrete, he wasn't there. He snorted, leaning on one shoulder against the wall. How pathetic. For all the good he did, he ended up being nothing more than a prideful, obnoxious, overly ambitious, stubborn know-it-all. Even Kaiba said it, and Kaiba himself was exactly completely exempt from those qualities.  
  
Kaiba was obnoxious and proud. Not entirely without reason though, and Yami Yuugi found himself comparing Kaiba to the storm around him as well. He and Kaiba were a lot alike, for one. In different ways, yes, but he saw a devotion to the ones that Kaiba cared about that he didn't see in himself. He continued to brood until a gentle voice from within his mind and a semi-transparent mirror image of himself interupted.  
  
"Mou hitori no boku? Are you all right?" Yuugi asked, leaning over slightly in order to meet his other half's gaze. The look on Yami Yuugi's face was enough to shake him, the younger one knowing that it took mountains to bother the normally unflappable spirit.  
  
Yami Yuugi frowned, waving it off. "It's none of your concern. I'll be fine." He checked his tone, speaking more comfortingly, "I'll be okay, aibou. I promise. If something were really wrong, I would tell you." Yuugi didn't look convinced, but he nodded, brightening slightly. He took a step backward.  
  
"Okay," he said, trailing off and smiling at Yami Yuugi. "Just tell me whenever you want to rest," he added, waving briefly and disappearing. Yami Yuugi nodded, even as Yuugi vanished. Somehow, it was that purity, that perseverence, that he had betrayed. Sometimes, he made himself sick. Sighing, he turned away from the wall, stepping out into the steady fall of rain. His hair and clothes were soon drenched, a fiting expression for the internal turmoil he was experiencing. Yes, sometimes he really made himself ill. 


End file.
